Talented young adults are increasingly choosing to settle in the close-in neighborhoods of the nation’s metropolitan areas.
Since 2000, the number of college-educated 25 to 34 year-olds has increased twice as fast in the close-in neighborhoods of the nation’s large cities as in the remainder of these metropolitan areas. In the aggregate, in the nation’s largest metro areas, the number of young adults with a four-year degree living in close-in neighborhoods increased 26 percent since 2000. Outside these close-in neighborhoods, the number of young adults with a four-year degree increased only half as fast, about 13 percent. According to the study, Kansas City’s close-in population increased by 50 percent. The close-in population in St. Louis jumped by 87 percent.